Page 81 - Anthology

The New Yorkers appeared to us country girls like enemy aliens–they even talked a different kind of
English than we were used to, and they were a lot more interesting than the ordinary types from Kansas
and South Dakota!

Back to War Bonds. I traveled around the region with Dr. Beyer to sell bonds. We had a gimmick, King
Neptune the Navy pig, a Chester White porker owned by a Chief Petty Officer in the recruiting office in a
nearby town. The strategy was to auction off the pig; Dr. Beyer, who was a great speaker, served as
auctioneer, and buyers bid by pledging to buy bonds. The highest bidder always donated the pig back to
the Navy to be re-sold at the next auction. My part in the auction was to read a proclamation naming King
Neptune an honorary member of the S.I.U. Rural Life Club. I was an officer in the club at that time.

As a home economics major, I was interested in the changes in food patterns brought about by the
rationing of meat, sugar, fat, etc. In the spring of 1943, I team-taught a course in Food Preservation with
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the foods professor in the Home Ec. Department. I had been 4-H Canning Champion in the county one
year previous, and I found myself teaching canning to city women who were at least twice my age. Also, a
small group of us 4-H alumnae organized a special project on sugarless cooking. The wife of the
University president, no less, was our leader. We compiled, tested, and circulated a sheet of recipes
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using honey and molasses, which were available, instead of refined sugar which was rationed .

NOTES

1 Army Air Corps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Corps The United States
Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the statutory forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed
from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the immediate
predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), established on June 20, 1941.
Although abolished as an administrative echelon in 1942, the Air Corps (AC) remained as one of
the combat arms of the Army until 1947.
2 Lockbourne Air Base: The facility was originally opened in June 1942 as Lockbourne Army
Airfield (named after the nearby village of Lockbourne) as a World War II pilot training airfield. It
was then named the Northeastern Training Center of the Army Air Corps and provided basic pilot
training and military support. In addition, the training center provided B-17 flight training to the
WASPS (Women Air force Service Pilots), and training for glider pilots in the CG-4A Waco glider.
3 106 Infantry Division: The 106th Infantry Division was a division of the United States Army
th
formed for service during World War II. Two of its three regiments were overrun and surrounded
in the initial days of the Battle of the Bulge, and they were forced to surrender to German forces
on 19 December 1944. The division was never officially added to the troop list following the
Second World War, despite having been almost completely organized in Puerto Rico by 1948;
subsequently, the War Department determined the division was not needed and deactivated the
division headquarters in 1950.